Madam Speaker, it is not that I want to single out Alberta or the oil industry. If there were oil in Quebec I would say the same thing.
What I find unacceptable is that Bill C-48 puts natural resources sectors at a disadvantage, mining in particular, while other sectors will benefit. I expected equitable reform with an impact on taxation for all the sectors that was at least neutral.
I did not say that. I will read a paragraph from CAmagazine from September 2003:
However, in such provinces as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and the Maritimes where rate changes have not been proposed or the reduction in rates are minor, the elimination of the resource allowance deduction for companies that benefited from the resource allowance results in an increase in the overall effective rate.This occurs because of the loss of the resource allowance on the provincial component of the company’s overall tax rate.
I do not take issue with the fact that Alberta or the oil industry will benefit, but that the provinces and the natural resources industries will be disadvantaged. Officials at the Department of Finance could have been more imaginative and made sure that the reform was at least neutral for all the mining sectors. Nonetheless, I agree—and here the member and I see eye to eye—with the fact that reducing the tax rate from 28% to 21% is also a question of equity with all the other industrial sectors.